A neuronal model of the language cortex

We modelled language-learning processes in a brain-inspired model of the language cortex. The network consisted of neuron-like elements (graded-response units) and mimicked the neuroanatomical areas in the perisylvian language cortex and the intrinsic and mutual connections within and between them. Speaking words creates correlated activity in motor and auditory cortical systems. This correlated activity might play an important role in setting up word representations at the neuronal level [D.B. Fry, The development of the phonological system in the normal and deaf child, in: F. Smith, F.A. Miller, (Eds.), The genesis of language MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1966, pp. 187–206; F. Pulvermüller, Words in the Brain's Language, Behav. Brain Sci. 22 (1999) 253–279]. We simulated this language-learning process and used the network to simulate neurophysiological brain responses to words and meaningless “pseudowords” as they have been documented using EEG and MEG.